All posts tagged ‘skylanders’

Skylanders has come to dominate the New York toy fair announcement. At an event before this year’s show, Activision gave an early peek of Skylanders Swap Force. This is a new game from a new developer with a new portal peripheral and 42 new figures. I sat down with Studio Head Guha Bala to talk about the game in detail.

Skylanders Swap Force introduces innovations this year that create different ways to play with the physical toys as well as new ways to play in-game. The 16 Swap Force characters have interchangeable torsos and legs that can be snapped together to create your own custom Skylanders. If you owned all the figures that would be 256 combinations.

16 new core Skylanders including Rollerbrawl (Undead) and Countdown (Fire).

16 Series 3 Returning Skylanders including Eruptor and Stealth Elf.

8 new Lightcore Skylanders.

8 new Swap Force areas, equivalent of Elemental Zones but with more varied play.

1 new Portal.

The bad news in that list is the requirement to buy a new portal. I asked Guha Bala, Studio Lead for Skylanders Swap Force, why we couldn’t use our existing portals for Swap Force. “Our commitment is that every time we release there’s a new level of magic in both the toys and the game so we need to upgrade the portal which will support all the new and old toys.”

I was also a little surprised that, despite the introduction of jumping, there is still only two player local co-operative play — particularly when Disney Infinity has four player online. Bala explained his thinking here. “The co-op play is local which reflects our demographic. What we find is that this is about children playing with each other rather than anonymous people online. This is very much a living room experience.”

This is certainly a good point. And with the Swap Force mechanic giving the physical toys a semi-articulated feel the possibilities for off-console play are much greater too. You can even attach two leg parts together to create your own comical Skylanders Swap Force mutants — although they won’t be recognized by the game.

Skylanders Swap Force

There is actually quite a lot of fun going through the various combinations of the Swap Force figures to see how the game renders them on screen. Some look really good, while others are a little odd and some are simply hysterical.

The game itself looks sharper this year with various aspects of the visuals obviously benefiting from some extra attention. This attention came in the form of a new developer, Vicarious Visions. They were responsible for the 3DS version of Spyro’s Adventure and Wii U version of Giants, not to mention the recent mobile versions.

Vicarious Visions Studio Head, Guha Bala, explained that they were also responsible for the engine that has powered all the different versions of Skylanders so far. Looking at the new game it certainly seems that they know how to squeeze every last drop of fidelity out of it.

With so many new Skylanders being created from scratch (16 Swap Force and 16 new core Skylanders) I was interested to hear how Vicarious Visions worked with creatives at Toys for Bob on the project. It seems that there is plenty of back and forth between the studios.

At the preview event I had some time with the following new Swap Force characters, and I have to say I liked the way they looked and felt to hold. The Swap mechanic had a positive feel to it with the magnets keeping everything in place securely. It did make me wonder whether the new figures were still bath-friendly though.

Magna-Charge – Tech Skylander

Skylanders Swap Force – Magna Charge

He has a big magnet on his top (Magna) half that gives him the ability to pick up objects and enemies and then throw them around. A little like a cross between a Treerex and Jet-Vac. He also has a Gatling Gun attack. On his lower (Charge) half he has a speed wheel that makes him one of the fastest Skylanders I’ve seen — complete with a charge attack.

Wash-Buckler – Water Skylander

Skylanders Swap Force: Wash Buckler

This is an octopus pirate character — a combination I was rather keen on. The top (Buckler) half has both a Cutlass and Bubble-gun attack. This means that you can encase enemies in bubbles before dispatching them. The lower (Wash) half has Tentacles that can attack and climb. This is quite a slow character — unless you swap the base for a faster ability of course.

Blast-Zone – Fire Skylander

This is a fire character that has rocket boots on his lower (Zone) half. This gives him a charge attack and makes him quite fast. His top (Blast) half offers rocket attacks that seemed as powerful as Bouncer but more direct-able without upgrading him.

These three figures can then be mixed and matched. As you can see they each have names in two halves which enables you to name any resulting combinations. Nine combos are possible with above three figures: Magna Charge, Magna Buckler, Magna Zone, Wash Charge, Wash Buckler, Wash Zone, Blast Charge, Blast Zone, Blast Buckler, Blast Zone.

Skylanders Swap Force: Countdown

In addition to these it seems that Stealth Elf and Eruptor will be getting a Series 3 release as well as two newcomers in the form of Rollerbrawl and Countdown.

Skylanders Swap Force will be available for Wii U, Xbox 360, PS3, with a Wii version being developed by Beenox and a 3DS version by n-Space.

I grew up in a golden era, as technology products were slowly becoming affordable (and not taking up entire houses). I remember saving up months of paper-round money to buy my first Walkman, and then later for my first CD player.

The epitome of all this was taking a product home from the shop and having it permanently installed in my life. Without any real means of selling-on aging devices I would keep hold of most of this technology until it no longer worked (or I was persuaded to pass it down to my younger brother).

I’ve noticed that these days, with technology changing ever faster, I have a different perspective. Rather than seeing gadgets as something I’ll keep for the long haul I often find myself eBaying last year’s model to upgrade to something newer. Continue Reading “The Economics of Swapping” »

There has been more than the usual clamor online for Disney Infinity, a new game from the Disney Interactive. Rumor, counter-rumor and various wild guesses were finally put to bed today as they unveiled the full story about their new game in a Hollywood launch event I attended.

The big headline here is that this is a new Skylanders-style experience featuring 30 or so toy Disney figures that grant access to characters and levels in the game. It is being developed by Avalanche Software and builds on technology from their excellent Toy Story: The Video Game product.

It’s been a while since Skylanders Giants first arrived. Since then we’ve seen Wave 2 and Wave 3 figures hit stores and sell like the proverbial hot cakes. As with the original game, my kid’s thoughts have now turn to the remaining characters as websites and players clamor for news of the remaining giants: Eye-Brawl, Thumpback and Ninjini.

Often the best way to track the arrival of these new figures is retailers. My kids spend their after school computing time, once homework is done, checking through a series of bookmarks for the figures they think will be released next. At first I thought they were wasting their time but it has actually paid dividends.

On more than one occasion they’ve been quick enough off the mark to snag themselves a rare or limited edition Skylander. The three remaining Skylander Giants are now firmly in their sights, particularly Thumpback and Eye-Brawl. When I asked them about Ninjini I was told firmly that she shouldn’t be coming out yet because there are any packaging pictures available yet. It seems my kids have become retail experts.

Looking around it does seem that Thumpback and Eye-Brawl will be hitting stores soon. On Amazon Thumpback’s listing includes details about compatibility and a box shot. Eye-Brawl is also there in his packaging with an additional image of an un-boxed version. Compare this to Ninjini, and she is clearly not going to be released until the final wave of figures in Easter or possibly the Summer.

With a likely announcement of Skylanders 3 at the New York Toy Fair in the spring it will be interesting to see how this effects the roll-out of figures. Also with other franchises getting in on the toy-meets-video-game genre, Disney Infinity seeming the most likely, it may mean that figures are released sooner than the first game to keep the collecting momentum going.

I also wouldn’t rule out some further surprises in terms of special figures. The popularity of limited edition Skylanders (from golden to translucent to flock and legendary) may mean that others will be produced as we approach the final release of Skylanders Giants figures.

The kids have also been pawing over the character trailers for Thumpback and Eye-Brawl as they try and decide which of these figures they prefer. My daughter seems to be attracted to the idea of a floating eye-ball; I blame too much Harry Potter. While my sons are still taken with Thumpback’s “Hail to the whale” catch phrase and skid around the house shouting it.

Scorpion Striker Skylanders Pack

Other favorites for Wave 4 inclusion seem to be Hot Dog, who is currently listed for sale (although without packaging) on Amazon. My kids have already made up all sorts of scenarios involving him and the Hot Head giant (favorite of which is something they call the “dog walking game”). Because of this they have got their eye on the Scorpion Striker Pack that includes not only Hot Dog, but also a Catapult weapon and Series 2 Zap.

Here’s the full list of remaining Skylanders that my kids use to check up on them.I suspect that we will see a bunch of these appear in Wave 4 quite soon then the remaining batch split between an Easter and Summer release of figures…

You can tell how good a party is going to be from the quality of the invitation, that’s what my seven year old daughter reliably informs me. If that’s the case the Disney Infinity launch should be a humdinger. Both she and I were highly impressed with the shiny invite to the upcoming Disney Infinity launch event.

Although concrete details are scant, Disney Infinity has been reported as a new cross platform gaming franchise starring the ever popular Pixar and Disney characters. If rumors are correct it is being developed by Avalanche Software and will likely draw on their impressive “Toy Box” mode in Toy Story 3: The Video Game where players could interact with and edit the world, much like family favorite Minecraft. Continue Reading “Why Disney Infinity Is Likely to Include Physical Toys” »

Since I reviewed Skylanders Giants at launch there have been plenty of further developments. With the first two waves of figures under our belt now, my kids are turning their attention to wave 3 and wave 4. They are eternally trying to second guess each other about which Giants, light-core and series 2 Skylanders will hit store shelves next.

Beyond the figures themselves there has also been some new Skylanders games on different platforms. The new Skylanders Battlegrounds game for the iPad extends the game-play and functionality of Skylanders Cloud Patrol and Skylanders Lost Islands. The main novelty here is the provision of a Bluetooth portal (as predicted) for the iPad that lets you bring characters into the game as you do on the console version.

Skylanders iPad Portal

What’s more, the portal that comes with the Battleground Starter Pack is backwards-compatible with the earlier iPad games. This has been great for my kids who inadvertently misplaced their web-codes for their figures (not realizing how important they were).

This iPad implementation of the portal of power is closer to the console version than the 3DS. It lets you switch characters in real time on the go rather than having to pre-load your figures into the system before going out and about. I hope this is something we’ll see on the handheld version too in due course.

Skylanders Giants Wii U — Definitive Version?

Vicarious Visions, who were responsible for the iPad versions of Skylanders and last year’s 3DS game, have taken on the task of bringing the console game to the Wii U. After the difficulty lumps with the end-level boss of the 360 and PS3 versions of the original game, Toys for Bob developed all three main versions of Skylanders Giants this year. I was a little surprised to hear that they weren’t also heading up the Wii U version — I guess they have too much work to do to be ready for the (rumored) New York Toy Fair announcement of Skylanders 3.

With Skylanders Giants released and Wave 2 and Wave 3 figures approaching retail there has been something of a lull in Skylanders news of late. What better time and talk to Paul Reiche Studio Head of Toys for Bob and find out what’s in stall for the franchise. During the 20-minute conversation we hear about Skylanders toy technology as diverse as Lasers, Voice, Photo-sensors and GPS tracking as well as a likely return for Boomer.

First though we asked how well Activision was set up to cope with demand this year. Reiche reassured us that there is plenty more stock in the retail channel than there was this time last year. “It would take an awful lot of people to buy us out this year. My hope is that there is stock there for everybody.” It should be noted that the game didn’t really take off until after Christmas the first time round so it will be interesting to see how well they managed to keep shelves stocked this yuletide. My advice is still to buy early if there’s a figure you really want, particularly limited editions.

Reiche said that it is the Giants figures that are selling fastest, and that they “weren’t sure how well a larger more expensive toy would sell, but they are going very well.” This was interesting to hear after a recent Skylanders unboxing test I did with my kids saw them choosing normal figures over Giants. He also mentioned some of the characters, like Boomer, who were absent this year and hinted that they may return in future games — which will be welcome news to some players. “He’s got to come back!” said Reiche.

Responding to criticisms over the first games difficulty Reiche talked about how this year’s game was being developed on 360, Wii and PS3 in house. This enables them to avoid the difficulty spikes from the 360/PS3 versions of the first game. It was refreshing to hear a developer being open about mistakes made as Reiche reassured us that things were better balanced this year.

He also attributed the game’s improved average review score to the inclusion of the additional difficulty modes that offer more longevity to hard core gamers. “Nightmare” difficulty is unlocked once you finish the game on any of the standard settings and represents a considerable challenge.

Attention of Skylanders Giants players is now focused on the different waves of figures. Reiche confirmed that Toys R Us had some Wave 2 figures at launch, something that even he didn’t know about until seeing them at retail. These Wave 2 figures are now rolling out in a more general release before things move on to the Wave 3 figures. This reflects a change of strategy from Activison, getting a wider range of toys out much sooner than for Skylanders Spyros Adventure where they only trickled into retail.

Having been enjoying playing Skylanders Giants over the last few weeks, we’ve hit something of a hiatus while we wait for the Wave 2 and Wave 3 figures to arrive at retail. In our trawling of various outlets for new arrivals my kids spotted these plush Skylander toys.

I’ve seen a variety of these before but the fact that these include the voice of the character, a light-core (light-up) element and a mini-portal that activates these features sets them above the rest. At around $40.99 on Amazon they aren’t cheap but I suspect that the price will rise with demand and scarcity, so if you fancy one for Christmas it maybe good to get in quick.

As you can see in the video the quality of fabric, stuffing and the sound and light is very good. It makes me realize how much a part of family life these characters have become. My kids hadn’t even heard of Spyro a couple of years ago. I’m giving this away to a FGTV subscriber so I better make sure the kids (or me) don’t get too attached to him.

Light-up Speaking Plush Skylanders Giants are available from Amazon as Spyro or Eruptor with more planned.

My kids seem to enjoy second guessing what new gadgets will come out next. They even have lists of features they want in the next iPhone or iPad and tick them off as they do (or don’t) appear. Looking at some of their suggestions I’d certainly be interested in paying a little more for their top features.

Having recently reviewed Skylanders Giants, I have been keeping a close eye on Amazon to add more Wave 1 figures to my collection. Besides some confusion with their listings, which have new Skylanders listed as Series 2 figures, I was interested to see a variety of Wave 2 Skylanders Giants have popped up for sale.

Whether this represents a different approach for Giants, compared to the approach in Spyro’s Adventure of only releasing certain figures, time will tell. But it’s interesting to see a wide range of Giants, Lightcores and Series 2 characters available for purchase.